


Upon a Time

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Nobuta wo Produce
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-25
Updated: 2006-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-25 01:23:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1624124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>when catherine was a girl she knew two boys (aka this was a little rushed)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Upon a Time

**Author's Note:**

> This was rushed so I apologize if there are mistakes and I haven't gotten around to fixing them yet.
> 
> Written for ghost lingering

 

 

Mizuki and Naoto met first to be fair, but it was Catherine that set everything in motion. The strange transfer with her long dark hair and cackling laugh made everything fall into place.

But that would be skipping ahead in the story. The proper place to start is the beginning.

Mizuki was a tough kid, something of a delinquent. During lunch he would sneak up to the roof for a cigarette, flicking the ashes over the edge of the building. He rarely went a week without skipping school and teachers would try to talk with his parents, but his parents - they didn't really care. They were always off at some party or some tropical destination.

So Mizuki did what he wanted when he wanted. He was a bully and no one believed he would last out his first year at high school.

In fact, Naoto was a favorite target of his. Naoto was pretty much average in everything. Average in looks, average in grades, and an average life with a mother at home and a father who was never home.

Except Naoto had something of a stutter. It only came out when he was stressed.

And on the day they met, Naoto was just an itty-bitty bit stressed. He had spent all night up studying for an exam and was fairly certain he remembered nothing. He hated tests and he was preoccupied enough that he wasn't looking where he was going.

It was especially unfortunate that he ended up running into Mizuki. They had different classes and Naoto didn't even know the other boy existed and vice versa.

"Hey! Watch where you're going."

"S-s-s-s-sorry," Naoto managed to say, diving to the floor to pick up his scattered books.

Mizuki knelt down and grabbed Naoto's social sciences textbook. "What was that?"

"I s-s-said sor-r-rry."

"You talk pretty damn funny," Mizuki said and gave a big grin. "Do I frighten you, huh?"

"N-n-no. Can I h-h-have my book back?" Naoto asked, stretching out his hand for it.

"No? Maybe I should." Mizuki stood and flipped through textbook. "Look at this crap they make you learn."

"P-p-please? I have a t-t-test."

Mizuki rolled his eyes. "Aw, poor baby." He threw the book back at Naoto. "Go to your test. I'll see you around."

And see Naoto around he did. He teased the other boy, shoved him into walls when he got the chance and as Naoto grew more wary and terrified of Mizuki, his stutter grew worse.

Which made Mizuki go even further out of his way to torment him.

It continued in that manner for two months to the point where Naoto was lying to his mother about bruises and scrapes. `We were playing soccer,' he would say about a blackened knee, `it got a little rough.'

Then Catherine was transferred to their school. She was a in a different class than the other two. All they heard were remarks and rumors about `that crazy crow girl'. Some said she would curse you if you even looked at her the wrong way.

But she wasn't a part of Naoto and Mizuki's world. Yet. But that didn't last long. In fact it ended fairly quickly, on the day that Mizuki caught Naoto leaving school - right outside the school gates - and ripped Naoto's book bag from his hands.

"Where you heading off to, huh?" Mizuki questioned. "Just can't wait to go home, can you?"

"I-I-I d-d-d-d-d - " Naoto glanced left and right, but everyone was ducking their heads and walking swiftly by. No, nothing to see here, he could almost hear them thinking.

Mizuki grabbed Naoto by the collar of his shirt. "Y-Y-You what? Cat got your tongue? Maybe we should get rid of that problem for you. Cut it right out. Then you'd never have to worry about that stutter again."

It was unfortunate for Mizuki that he wasn't keeping an eye out for anyone looking to stop him, but even if he had he probably wouldn't have seen the attack from above. A dark shape jumped from the top of the wall - cackling all the way - and nailed him in the shoulder.

He spun backwards and lost his grip on Naoto though both of them ended up in the dirt. Mizuki barely had time to process what had happened before a girl sat on his chest. "Hi," she said, "I'm Catherine and you can't treat people like that."

"What?"

"You have to be a good person or bad things will happen to you, do you understand? So don't treat him like that."

"Where the hell did you come from?" She was smaller than him, but no matter how hard he tried she wouldn't budge.

"Here and there. Recently, the wall." She smiled. "But we shouldn't be talking about that. We should be talking about how you're going to change your ways. Right, Naoto?"

Naoto had his back pressed against the wall, his eyes wide. "H-h-how d-d-d-do you know m-m-m- "

"I just do," she answered. "I know Mizuki's, too, but it's not really something to worry about."

"R-right."

"Are you some kind of freak?" Mizuki asked.

"Are you some kind of bully?" When he didn't answer, Catherine slid off of him. He bolted to his feet but before he could do anything else she grabbed hold of his wrist. "Now we're going to have something to eat and Naoto and I will discuss how to save you."

"I don't need to be saved!"

"M-me?"

But they did go along. Mizuki by force and Naoto out of curiosity. The slender girl had cowed Mizuki within minutes and he couldn't help but want to know how.

He never did though.

Mizuki sat silent and Catherine did most of the talking as she treated all three of them to ice cream. Mizuki was to no longer bully students she said. He was going to go to classes. He was going to do his homework.

And she managed to get him to agree with it.

He was lying, but Catherine made him stick to his word after the first time Mizuki ditched school. She pulled Naoto from class and they both headed to Mizuki's silent and mostly empty house.

When they discovered the locked door, Catherine had scaled up the side of the house and entered through an open window. Shortly afterwards, she dragged a Mizuki still struggling to get dressed in his school uniform outside and all three of them headed back to school.

It was a struggle those first few months, but somewhere along the line Mizuki started to do his homework without Catherine's cheery threats and Naoto stopped being afraid of him. And after that it wasn't long until Naoto was inviting Mizuki over for dinner. A lot.

Mizuki would grumble, Catherine would laugh her creepy laugh, and Naoto would shrug and try to be the sane one even though most no longer considered him average due to the company he kept.

They had a strange friendship. It worked for all of them.

Years later - after they had all graduated - they called each other on holidays and stopped by each other's houses when they were in the area. They supported each other through deaths and births and just life itself.

And Catherine would look at the students in her school and sometimes - only sometimes - see echoes of their friendship in others. The bonds that could not be broken.

 


End file.
